The headless queen who haunts the Towers long and haunted history. She has been seen in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula, where her mutilated body was hastily buried in an old arrow chest because no proper coffin had been provided. She has been seen on Tower Green, where she died. She has been seen in the corridors of the White Tower, gliding silently in a grey gown, and near the Queen's House where she spent her final days. In every sighting, she appears headless — carrying her severed head tucked beneath her arm.
The most famous and well-documented encounter occurred in 1864, when a sentry of the King's Royal Rifle Corps was on night duty near the Queen's House. He observed a white figure moving toward him through the darkness. He challenged it three times in accordance with military protocol, received no response, and charged with his bayonet — which passed straight through the apparition. The soldier fainted on the spot and was discovered unconscious at his post by the relief guard. He was immediately arrested and court-martialed for dereliction of duty and abandoning his post. At the trial, two independent witnesses — another guard and a Tower official — testified that they had observed the same spectral figure from different vantage points at the same time. The soldier was acquitted, his testimony and those of the witnesses entered into the official military record, making it one of the rare ghost sightings documented in formal legal proceedings.
In 1882, Captain of the Guard J.D. Dundas reported a chilling scene in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. While making his rounds late at night, he noticed a strange light emanating from within the locked chapel. Peering through a window, he witnessed a procession of figures in Tudor-era dress moving slowly up the aisle, led by a woman in an elaborate gown whose description matched historical depictions of Anne Boleyn. The figures processed to the altar and then, one by one, simply vanished. The chapel — where Anne lies buried alongside Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey — is considered one of the most haunted rooms in England.
Yeoman Warders, who live within the Tower walls with their families, have reported encounters across the centuries that they discuss only reluctantly. Doors open and close on their own in the Queen's House. Footsteps echo in empty corridors. A sense of overwhelming grief is reported near the scaffold site on Tower Green, where a permanent memorial now marks the spot of the executions. Some Warders' children have reported seeing "the lady without a head" in the grounds after dark. Whether one believes in ghosts or not, the emotional residue of Anne Boleyn's unjust death — a queen destroyed by a king's capricious cruelty — has seared itself into the stones of the Tower. Nearly five centuries later, she will not be silenced, and she will not leave.